This is my last chapter. It takes place a week after the last chapter ended. Also, I suck at poetry so the spell in this chapter probably sucks. Sorry.

Piper flipped through the book, a pen and paper next to it in case she needed to write down a spell. Most of the demons she had faced so far, she could vanquish with her own power, though. Mostly lower level demons.

"Piper?" She looked up as both of her sisters walked into the attic, but almost immediately looked back at the book.

"What?"

"Piper, stop." Phoebe put her hand down on the book, preventing her from turning the page again. Piper looked up again. "You can't deal with things this way. Didn't you learn anything last time? This is the way that you dealt with Prue's death. You remember how that ended?"

"Don't worry, Phoebe. I'm not going to turn into anything nasty. The person I'm pissed at now is out of reach." Phoebe sighed.

"Piper…"

"What do you want me to do, Phoebe?" She had already cleaned the entire house. She had organized the pantries and their potions ingredients. She spent too much time cooking. Anything to get her mind off how her life had turned out.

"You really cared about Cole this much?" Paige broke in.

"It doesn't matter now." Piper picked up the book, hugging it to her chest. "I was wrong about him."

"Honey, I know you thought he was a good guy-"

"Not that." Piper interrupted Phoebe with a glare. "I meant…You know when I realized that maybe I…that it wasn't all about Leo anymore, not for me. You want to know what I thought? I thought if it were Cole, that he wouldn't just leave like Leo did. I thought that he would fight harder than Leo did." She shrugged, fighting off tears. "Guess I was wrong about him too." She started past her sisters.

"I'll be in my room."

Phoebe let out a sigh after Piper had left the room and sat down on the couch. Piper had been spending all her time working now. Cooking, cleaning, working at the club, demon hunting. The past week, she had been keeping herself constantly busy.

"I just…I had no idea she cared about him this much." Paige callapsed on the couch next to her.

"Yeah, neither did I. I mean, we just found out that they were friends. This is beyond surreal. And I was worried about you going back to him."

"They love each other." Phoebe said quietly. Paige scoffed.

"Look, maybe Piper thinks she loves Cole, but do you really think that he feels that for her?"

"Yes." Phoebe said firmly. "I saw it in his eyes when I mentioned Piper. I know he loves her."

"You saw it…" Paige stared at her. "You went to see him, didn't you? You're the reason he left." Phoebe looked down at her hands, suddenly ashamed, thinking about the way that Piper had been acting all week. Paige saw it.

"Look, you did the right thing. Cole's not good for her, no matter what she thinks she feels. He'll only hurt her. But now that he's gone-"

"Piper's miserable." Phoebe finished for her. Paige shook her head.

"Maybe. But she'll move on from this."

"I don't know." Phoebe frowned. "You saw her after Leo left, and now Cole's gone too. What if it's one thing too many?"

"Cole tried to kill her. He tried to kill all of us, several times, actually. You can't be thinking that this could work. Especially after what he put you through."

"No." Phoebe's voice turned sad. "But I know what it's like to lose him. It nearly destroyed me. And Piper losing him on top of losing Leo…" She sighed and got up. "I don't know what this will do to her. I don't know if she can get over this."

"Piper?" Phoebe walked over to her in the kitchen. She was staring down at the sink. She had been washing dishes, it looked like, but now she was just standing there. After a moment, Piper spoke up quietly.

"Do you think I'm meant to be alone forever?"

"What? No, of course not." Phoebe grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around. Piper wasn't crying, but there was still a great deal of pain showing in her eyes. She frowned.

"I've been thinking about it. There's got to be a reason, right? There has to be a reason that they both left."

"Why not? Leo didn't fight for me. Cole didn't fight for me. He came back from hell for you. Maybe I'm presuming too much, huh? Maybe he never really did get over you. Then again, I don't think he would have left if it was you."

"Maybe…" Phoebe hesitated, but she hated seeing Piper blaming herself for this. "Maybe that means he cared about you more."

"He cared about me, so he left. That makes sense. That's what they all say, right?" She started past Phoebe.

"Maybe he didn't want to hurt you." Piper wiped a hand over her face.

"I promised I'd bring him back if something happened. I knew he wasn't evil. I knew that he hasn't been for years." Phoebe stared at her sister, and felt her own flare of anger.

"Oh? And what about last year? When he tried to kill you and Paige?"

"That wasn't him," Piper said quietly, her voice full of conviction, "it was the Source." Phoebe let out a frustrated breath and grabbed her shoulders again.

"Piper, Cole was the Source." The anger in Piper's eyes burned brighter.

"He was possessed, Phoebe. He didn't have a choice. He took in the hollow to save our lives and lost his free will as a consequence. He tried to fight it." She sighed, shaking her head. "God, why am I even talking about this? It doesn't matter anymore." Phoebe forced herself back to the present. Piper's words had brought up a lot of memories.

"I wasn't good enough for Leo to stay. Why should I be good enough for Cole?" Phoebe watched her leave before dropping down in one of the chairs again.

Three days later, Phoebe sat in the attic, staring at the spell that she had written. She had been thinking nearly not stop about what Piper had said, and about other things.

Piper wasn't any better, and Phoebe didn't know how she ever would be without this. Ever since she had talked to Piper she had been feeling guilty. Extremely so.

What if Piper was right about Cole? What if it hadn't been his fault? What if she had been wrong about him all along? She had thought she was doing the right thing for her sister but now she wasn't so sure.

Piper was miserable, and Phoebe hated that haunted, lost look in her eyes. Piper was convinced that there had to be something wrong with her, and that Cole obviously didn't care for her that much if he could just leave.

Phoebe knew that wasn't true. She really did believe that Cole loved Piper. She had seen it in his eyes when she had gone to his place; she had heard it in his voice. She knew that look, because at one time not to long ago it had been directed at her.

She didn't love Cole with the fire that she used to. She supposed that some part of her might always, but over the past months it had faded and she really was moving on, and it seemed that he was as well.

The fact that Piper obviously loved him as well had been a surprise. She had always thought that Piper and Leo were forever. She had viewed their love as something epic.

She could admit that she had been more terrified for her sister than anything when she realized the feelings that Cole and Piper had for each other. Piper had been in so much pain after Leo left, she didn't want her sister to go through that again, and she had been convinced that Cole would do that to her as well.

The fact that she had inflicted that pain on Piper was hard to take. Leo or Cole wasn't the one who had hurt her this time, she had. Phoebe looked down at the spell she had written, the spell that she had been putting off casting. The final test.

Bring Piper's destined love to this place

So that he may plead his case

Bring me the one who will love her best

So that she may find peace and rest

Phoebe stood up as she finished the spell and was unsurprised at the person that appeared in the attic a few seconds later.

"Cole." She said, looking him over. "You look like hell." He turned to her. He obviously hadn't shaved for days, and his normally neat hair was a mess. When he met her gaze, he didn't look surprised, just tired.

"What do you want, Phoebe? Did you bring me here to try and kill me again?"

"I brought you here to talk about Piper. She hasn't been doing to well lately." Cole stared at her for a minute before he laughed bitterly.

"Are you trying to drive me insane, Phoebe? I'm doing what you wanted. I'm staying away. I left town. I haven't been near Piper. What the hell else do you want from me?"

"I want…" She hesitated and closed her eyes for a second before continuing. "I want to apologize. I want to say that maybe I was wrong about this whole thing. Piper's been miserable since you left."

"A week ago you were convinced that I would wouldn't do anything but hurt her."

"Cole-"

"I didn't leave because of what you said." He interrupted her. "If it was just that you and I would have never gotten started. Your sisters weren't too happy with me back then, after all. I left because you were right." Phoebe could see the pain clearly in his eyes.

"What I did to you…" He sighed and wiped a hand across his face. "Look, I can barely live with myself now, if I did that to Piper…" Phoebe looked down. She could see it in his eyes. She'd been able to see it after he had saved her from becoming a mermaid for the rest of her life.

"You did hurt me, Cole. But, I'm not Piper. I think…I think maybe one of the reasons I couldn't give you another chance when you came back was because I let you go. I mourned you."

"Thought it was because I was evil and always would be."

"That might have been a part of it. But I've been thinking a lot lately. I think maybe I couldn't let myself get close to you because I couldn't watch you die again. So, I tried to move on, and I have been. And so have you. It wasn't easy but I think that I'm finally making peace with what happened between us. It was actually Piper who helped me with that, and I want to do the same for her."

"So you brought me here for closure? How did she help you with that?" Phoebe smiled a little.

"Just something she said about you. Look, Piper's a fighter. I've never seen her give up before. But after everything that's happened…" Phoebe shook her head. "She loves you, Cole."

"Sometimes love isn't enough. You said that to me, remember?"

"But sometimes it can be. We weren't meant to be together. I think maybe you and Piper were meant to be all along." She walked closer to him, and held out the piece of paper she wrote her spell on. "If you want more proof, here it is." She watched him as he took it and read what was written there. She crossed her arms when he looked back up at her.

"If you hurt my sister, I'll make you suffer." And then she smiled.

Piper was cooking dinner. She had been preparing more elaborate meals lately in an effort to keep herself busy. It didn't work so well most of the time, though. She couldn't keep her thoughts at bay.

"Bad time?" Piper spun around and stared, in shock. Cole stood in the doorway. She tried to speak several times before she was able to get words out.

"Cole." She choked out finally. She stared at him. "You look like hell."

"So I've heard." He said with a small smile.

"What are you doing here?" He stepped closer but she quickly walked around, keeping the island between them.

"I came for you." He said quietly.

"For me?" She felt anger building up inside of her, and all the pain that she had been feeling for the past week. "Why?"

"Look, I know you're angry."

"Angry? Why the hell would I be angry, Cole?! Because you left town without an explanation? Because you kissed me and then ditched me? I mean, you could have said something."

"I know. I'm sorry." Piper shook her head.

"You know, if you thought it was a mistake, I could have handled it. I know you have this epic love for Phoebe. I deserved the truth, Cole!"

"You're right, you do. So, here it is. I'm not in love with Phoebe anymore. I haven't been for a while now. It took what happened with Barbas for me to realize it, but it is the truth. There's a reason why the fear that he exploited was you rejecting me and not Phoebe." His eyes were soft as he met her gaze, and his smile warm. "I love you, Piper." Piper's anger deflated at this, but she still kept her distance from him.

"If you loved me you wouldn't have left the way you did." Cole sighed.

"Piper, I left because I love you." Piper crossed her arms across her chest, her entire body tense but she didn't move away when he walked around the island to stand in front of her.

"I was so terrified of hurting you. I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if I hurt you like that."

"You can't do this to me again, Cole. You can't just take off again and then expect everything to be okay when you finally decide to come back."

"I know. I'm not going anywhere again. I promise." He hesitantly pulled her into a hug. She was tense for another moment before she relaxed into the embrace and buried her head in his chest.

"If we try this, you have to promise not to run off again when something happens." Cole smiled a little down at her.

"So, you're willing to try this?" She smiled a little back, and lifted herself up to kiss him before resting her head back on his chest.

"Cole."

"Yeah?"

"I love you too."

Okay, so this one's done. Hope you guys liked it. I'm not so sure about the Phoebe and Cole scene but I thought that she would need some sort of closure before she'd be able to accept Cole and Piper being together.

I was thinking maybe of writing more on this story, like a sequel on some other things that happened in the series. Like maybe an AU of season six. Tell me what you think, and I'll probably start it soon. I've kind of gotten hooked on this pairing.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.